Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/11/09

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Subject: [Leica] thinking Zone System
From: benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney)
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2010 11:46:53 +1030
References: <A3CB564C-86CD-40DB-A8B7-646887FF2E8F@mac.com> <B6CBEA07-9EEE-40CA-AC09-099D477D88BA@mac.com> <E6D4AFD0-9897-4962-A8A7-88118415C846@mac.com>

Somewhere in one of Adams' books (maybe it's 'The Negative') he
recommends that rollfilm should be "exposed carefully and developed
N-1" or something like that.  That's pretty much what I always do when
I am working quickly, which is the vast majority of the time.

I found that modern films don't respond particularly well to
manipulations past N+/-1 and had all sorts of problems when developing
film commercially for people who had read up on the Zone System but
hadn't quite grasped it.  Few were willing to put in the effort or
collaborate enough to get the system working properly between the lab
and them.  I always wondered why they didn't do the developing
themselves, but saying it would have been counter productive.

Marty


On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 11:37 AM, George Lottermoser <imagist3 at mac.com> 
wrote:
> When I did photo journalism full time i did exactly as you; settling on 
> one film/exposure/development combination which gave me printable 
> negatives under 90 percent of circumstances; and carried multiple bodies 
> to avoid lens changes.
>
> The only exceptions were special projects under special circumstances.
>
> Regards,
> George
> (from iPad)
>
> On Nov 9, 2010, at 18:47, Tarek Charara <tcharara at mac.com> wrote:
>
>> I found the zone system easy with 4x5 and 120 (3 backs on my Bronica 
>> GS1), but cumbersome on 135. Probably because I mainly did (and still do) 
>> Reportages....
>>
>> I had tested Tri-x (with the help of AA's Negative) and did a general 1 
>> stop over exposure and 1 stop under development. Everything else being 
>> handled with paper grades. I use the meter of the M6 or an incident light 
>> meter.
>>
>> For the other formats I tested the films and development and used the 
>> spotmeter.
>>
>> I also used 2 or 3 bodies, but only with different lenses, so I didn't 
>> waste time changing them according to subject
>
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>


In reply to: Message from imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] thinking Zone System)
Message from tcharara at mac.com (Tarek Charara) ([Leica] thinking Zone System)
Message from imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] thinking Zone System)